3 kids die screaming in fire

January 07, 2009

When relatives and neighbors saw flames shooting from a South Chicago apartment and heard young children crying this morning, they ran up the wooden stairs to the top floor of the three-story building. Heavy, black smoke hampered their efforts.

The fire killed three children, two brothers and a sister. Another brother was rescued and remained in serious condition this evening.

People watch firefighters at the scene in the 8300 block of South Buffalo Avenue. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)

Sharday Harper, a relative of the victims who lives on the second floor, said she helped in the rescue effort for the one child. "But it was too late for the others," she said. "I heard them screaming, but I couldn't get to them."

The children's mother, identified by relatives as Charlene D. Cheatem, 24, was being questioned by police Wednesday evening at the Calumet Area headquarters, said Monique Bond, a police spokeswoman. Police sources said detectives are looking into her whereabouts at the time of the fire.

Officials with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services are also investigating the circumstances surrounding the fatal fire. The agency has had no prior contact with the children's family, said DCFS spokesman Jimmie Whitelow. Cheatem's eldest child, a 5-year-old girl, was temporarily placed in the care of relatives.

Firefighters found no working smoke detectors in the residence at 8338 S. Buffalo Ave., officials said.

Authorities were investigating several possible causes for the blaze, including a misuse of a space heater, said Larry Langford, a Fire Department spokesman. Police sources said natural gas had been cut off to the building.

The fatal victims were identified as Sharell Gates, 3, Tyrel Gates, 2, and Jimmy Gates, 7 months old, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office, though relatives said the 2-year-old's name was Tyrell. Their bodies were found in the corner of a bedroom on the top floor where the flames broke out, fire officials said.

"When we went upstairs, the only thing we heard was, 'Help! Help!' " said neighbor Marlond Maclin, 25. "It's kids. . . . I felt extra bad because I can't do nothing because it was too much smoke and fire."

Firefighters said they rescued a 4-year-old amid light smoke on the second floor of the burning building and took him to University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital.